Some Groups Don’t Want Fundraisers Enlisting Staff Help—Even Though It Works

Many fundraisers work to get as many people as possible within their organization to help raise money. But those efforts often backfire because the nonprofit’s culture is dead set against the idea.

“It’s extremely hard to change a culture. It is the backbone of the organization,” says Melanie Brandston, a New York fundraising consultant.

Ms. Brandston is now pursuing a master’s degree in organizational culture because she thinks it will enhance her efforts to help nonprofits improve their solicitations. “You have the employee handbook,” she says, “but then you have what really goes on, which is much more powerful.”

Ms. Brandston recalls working with one organization that had been primarily supported by government grants and contracts but wanted to start getting contributions from individuals. It struggled because the chief executive and others were so used to working with government officials that they were unable to understand what motivates donors or to form meaningful ties with people who could give.

“The group could not get their language out of the way” and kept using government lingo, Ms. Brandston recalls. “It was very scientific.”

Eventually the charity was able to persuade individuals to give, but it took a decade to do so and happened only after a veteran leader left.

In other cases, Ms. Brandston says, fundraisers have trouble getting nonprofit leaders and other staff members to realize that today’s donors rarely want just to write a check for whatever the organization says it needs; instead, they want a say in how the money is used and expect to get regular reports on results. For some nonprofit workers, that seems like an ethical violation or a nuisance.

As a result, nonprofit workers get stuck in outmoded fundraising methods such as mass appeals focused on what the charity wants, not individually tailored appeals on what a donor gets excited about. And they have a hard time adapting to the greater demands that come with working with people who make big gifts, says Simone Joyaux, a fundraising consultant. Instead, they concentrate on recruiting low-dollar gifts and fail to deliver if and when they get a much bigger donation; they’re more focused on getting donors rather than keeping them.

“There’s a ton of money in major gifts but a real lack of execution” among charities, says Deborah Peeples, a fundraiser who helped the Humane Society of the United States more than triple its contributions to $21-million in four years. “The $10 donor is very different from the $250,000 donor,” she says. Charities, she adds, “struggle with focusing on the relationship with donors rather than their mission.”

Part of a Movement

Even charities that succeed in getting more people to raise money on their behalf concede that it isn’t easy.

“There have been times where it is challenging to have three people at a meeting with a donor instead of just one,” says Kay Buck, executive director of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, in Los Angeles, which now raises $1.6-million annually, up from $300,000 a decade ago. “It is time-consuming to create a culture of philanthropy,” Ms. Buck adds, “but I am convinced this is the right way to go.”

So is Kieren Havens, chief strategy officer at Health Care for the Homeless, a Baltimore charity. Ms. Havens is leading an effort at her organization to increase contributions by getting people affiliated with her organization to see themselves as part of a movement to improve people’s lives. “This gets you away from ‘We need their money so we can do our work’ to ‘Let’s talk about how we can accomplish our shared mission,’” she says. “It is a really big shift. It is not easy.”

Not Just a Transaction

To make that shift, however, many charities don’t realize that the first step is making sure everyone on the staff understands the basics of fundraising, says Joe Golding, chief executive of Advancement Resources, a consulting company that helps hospitals, medical centers, and other organizations get their medical and administrative staffs involved in fundraising.

“One of the biggest challenges is that leaders don’t know the difference between events or auxiliary groups and major donors who can give multimillion-dollar estates,” says Mr. Golding.

Philanthropy, he says, is like a scale: On one end is giving in a transactional manner to get something in return, like buying Girl Scout cookies. At the other end is a completely different experience in which donors give generously because an organization has provided them with a life-changing experience.

“Our goal is to help organizations move from transactions into meaningful experiences,” says Mr. Golding. “This is the culture change you need to effect.”

Saying Thanks

To increase participation in fundraising, charity leaders need to pay special attention to how they treat employees and trustees who already give, says Karen Osborne, a New York fundraising consultant. “One national organization I know does a great job with external donors, but one senior person there told me, ‘I just get a standard thank-you note and am asked to do payroll giving again next year,’” says Ms. Osborne. “I hear about this a lot. Make your internal donors feel great about giving, and they will tell others.”